''Crashing Las Vegas'' is a 1956 American

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Jean Yarbrough Jean Yarbrough (August 22, 1900 – August 2, 1975) was an American film director. Biography Jean Yarbrough was born in Marianna, Arkansas on August 22, 1900. He attended the Sewanee: The University of the South, University of the South in ...

and starring the comedy team

The Bowery Boys The Bowery Boys are fictional New York City characters, portrayed by a company of New York actors, who were the subject of 48 feature films released by Monogram Pictures and its successor Allied Artists Pictures Corporation from 1946 through 1 ...

. The film was released on April 22, 1956 by Allied Artists and is the 41st film in the series. It was the last of the series to star

Leo Gorcey Leo Bernard Gorcey (June 3, 1917– June 2, 1969) was an American stage and film actor, famous for portraying the leader of a group of street-wise city toughs known variously as the Dead End Kids, East Side Kids, the East Side Kids, and as adults ...

Plot

The Bowery Boys' landlady Mrs. Kelly needs some money. Sach sustains an electric shock and gains the ability to predict numbers. Thanks to Sach's new power, the boys succeed on a TV game show and win a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada. Sach uses his power at the gambling tables, winning money for Mrs. Kelly. However, it's not too long before some curious gangsters want to get in on Sach's "secret." After the mobsters try to blackmail Hall with a

badger game The badger game is an extortion scheme or confidence trick in which the victims are tricked into compromising positions in order to make them vulnerable to blackmail. Its name is derived from the practice of badger-baiting. Description In its ...

, the gang takes them on in a brawl. During the fracas, Sach's money literally flies out the window, but Mrs. Kelly has since won some prize money herself and no longer needs the gang's assistance.

Cast

The Bowery Boys

as Terence Aloysius "Slip" Mahoney *

Huntz Hall Henry Richard "Huntz" Hall (August 15, 1920 – January 30, 1999) was an American radio, stage, and movie performer who appeared in the popular "Dead End Kids" movies, including ''Angels with Dirty Faces'' (1938), and in the later "The Bowe ...

as Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones *

David Gorcey David Gorcey (February 6, 1921 – October 23, 1984) was an American actor and the younger brother of actor Leo Gorcey. Gorcey is best known for portraying "Chuck Anderson" in Monogram Pictures' film series The Bowery Boys, and "Pee Wee" in i ...

as Charles "Chuck" Anderson (credited as David Condon) * Jimmy Murphy as Myron

Remaining cast

* Doris Kemper as Mrs. Kate Kelly *

Mary Castle Mary Ann Castle, ''née'' Mary Ann Noblett, (January 22, 1931 – April 29, 1998) was an American actress. She appeared in the films '' When the Redskins Rode'' in 1951, ''Three Steps to the Gallows'' in 1953 and ''Gunsmoke'' in 1953. In 1954 sh ...

as Carol LaRue *

Don Haggerty Don Haggerty (July 3, 1914 – August 19, 1988) was an American actor of film and television. Early life and education Haggerty was born in Poughkeepsie, New York. Before he began appearing in films in 1947, Haggerty was a Brown University ...

as Tony Murlock *

Terry Frost Sir Terence Ernest Manitou Frost RA (13 October 1915 – 1 September 2003) was a British abstract artist, who worked in Newlyn, Cornwall. Frost was renowned for his use of the Cornish light, colour and shape to start a new art movement in ...

as Police Sergeant Kelly *

Mort Mills Mort Mills (born Mortimer Morris Kaplan; January 11, 1919 – June 6, 1993) was an American film and television actor who had roles in over 150 movies and television episodes. He was often the town lawman or the local bad guy in many popular w ...

as Augie *

Jack Rice Jack Rice (born Earl Clifford Rice; May 14, 1893 – December 14, 1968) was an American actor best known for appearing as the scrounging, freeloading brother-in-law in Edgar Kennedy's series of short domestic comedy films at the RKO studio ...

as Wiley, hotel desk clerk * Nicky Blair as Sam

Production

''Crashing Las Vegas'' was

's last Bowery Boys movie. He had a tough time trying to deal with the death of his father

Bernard Gorcey Bernard Gorcey (born Baruch Ugorsky; 9 January 1886 – 11 September 1955) was an American actor. He began in Vaudeville, performed on Broadway, and appeared in multiple shorts and films. He portrayed ice cream shop proprietor Louie Dumbrowski i ...

, and began to drink heavily. Gorcey is visibly intoxicated in most of the finished film. After finishing production, Gorcey demanded an increase in his salary, but

Allied Artists Pictures Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...

refused to do so. Leo quit the series as a result. Longtime cast member

Bennie Bartlett Floyd B. Bartlett, known professionally as Benny Bartlett or Bennie Bartlett (August 16, 1924 – December 26, 1999), was an American child actor, musician, and later a member of the long-running feature film series '' The Bowery Boys''. Bio ...

had just left the series, and was replaced by Jimmy Murphy. According to studio publicity, Murphy was working as a parking valet when he was discovered by Leo Gorcey. Gorcey felt that Murphy had a good face for the movies, and had him hired as a Bowery Boy. With Bernard Gorcey's death, the locale of the series shifted from Louie's Sweet Shop to the gang's boardinghouse, managed by Irish landlady Mrs. Kate Kelly. In this film, she was played by Doris Kemper; for the next three films in the series,

Queenie Smith Queenie Smith (September 8, 1898 – August 5, 1978) was an American stage, television, and film actress. In later life she became a talent agent. Today's audiences may know her best for her Southern-belle character roles in the W. C. Fie ...

would play the role.

Reception

By 1956 most of the trade press stopped bothering with the Bowery Boys pictures. The films were such predictable moneymakers that there was no longer any reason to review them; one was about as good as another as a useful filler on double-feature programs. ''The Exhibitor'' summed up ''Crashing Las Vegas'': "Usual Bowery Boys series nonsense for usual audience." One theater manager, Moz Burles, noticed Leo Gorcey's tipsy performance and advised the studio: "From acting, would say this is Gorcey's last. This is a good series and they could play up the gags to be just a bit more mature and start all over again with Hall."Moz Burles (Bingen, Washington) in ''Motion Picture Herald'', Dec. 22, 1956, p. 23. That's exactly what happened: the studio dropped Gorcey and rebooted the series with Hall, and the gang members grew up, trading their casual sweaters for jackets and neckties.

Home media

Warner Archives released the film on made-to-order

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

in the United States as part of ''"The Bowery Boys, Volume Three"'' on October 1, 2013.

References

External links

* * * {{Jean Yarbrough 1956 films 1956 comedy films American black-and-white films American comedy films Bowery Boys films 1950s English-language films Films set in the Las Vegas Valley Allied Artists films Films directed by Jean Yarbrough 1950s American films Films scored by Marlin Skiles